[QUOTE]Based on the original post, it appears they are only interested in collecting general statistics - for instance, you have 50 categories and 1500 products, not the actual products or categories. The same would be true for users - you have x number of users and y number of user groups. I think the point here is to understand the needs of their customers based on their actual installation statistics.[/QUOTE]
It is just that anything involving “information gathering” can be a very sensitive issue for many business owners. I guess it will all really depend upon whether or not their perception of “Sensitive & Confidential Information” is similar to mine and other concerned CS-Cart users. This idea sounds at least somewhat similar to Microsoft when during a software installation they ask for permission to supply them with usage data of which I don’t believe I have ever checked the approval box, simply because I don’t know exactly what personal information is being sent & furthermore don’t have the time to spend trying to determine exactly what is contained within this data.
[QUOTE]This is really no different than giving them access to your server so they can suss these things out.[/QUOTE]
That is true, which is why I have not given anyone outside of our company access to our store for several years now! The longer you are in business, the more critical data you compile which means there comes a point in time in which it becomes far too risky to be tossing out your admin login & password details to others outside your organization. It is funny to me how people talk about security this, PCI Compliance that, etc etc yet at the drop of a hat they will hand over there site admin login details to someone they may not even actually know.
Anyway, I am a very strong supporter of CS-Cart, otherwise I would not be using it, not as if I don’t know how to switch to a different platform. So, I most likely am over reacting, like I said, this can just be a sensitive topic for some.
I understand storeowners’ legitimate concern about protecting their data; I also understand the developers legitimate need to gather statistics in order to advance CS-Cart. I think Jesse’s suggestion to (optionally) create an XML file might be a good bridge - it would allow any interested storeowner to review what is contained in the file before they send it off to CS-Cart.
It is important that the feedback be an opt-in solution. That said, I hope that most CS-Cart customers will participate so that CS-Cart has a better idea of what their customers’ changing needs are.
It is important that the feedback be an opt-in solution. That said, I hope that most CS-Cart customers will participate so that CS-Cart has a better idea of what their customers’ changing needs are.
Bob[/quote]
Changing Needs = Growing Pains.
I need CS-Cart to know that I don’t manage a Mom’n’Pop business anymore but a corporation, accordingly my needs are ‘x’ ‘y’ and ‘z’
[quote name=‘adodric’]I see this as a way for the cs cart devs to see usage stats for the different features of the cart. They are not interested in your customer information or your total sales. They want to know that if Z # of cart owners use addon/feature A and Y # of cart owners use addon/feature B, then they can decide what is the best path of priority for the new addons in development.[/QUOTE]
Yes, that’s right. Also, this will help us to get the feedback about the recently released features.
For example, we will be able to see how many people enabled “New tax calculation method”.
In any case you will be able to disable the feedback functionality, so no information will be sent to us at all.
It would be great if you selected the points from the list below which can be applied to “Sensitive & Confidential Information”.
The planned list of parameters that will be sent (a more detailed list than that in the first post):
setting values (except the following: Company Location, all e-mails, all accounts and passwords to realtime shipping services, google, mail, etc)
user stats (number of users, admins, affiliates, suppliers, admin user groups, customer user groups)
add-ons availability and options (add-on name and its status. Options for add-ons like reward points, product configurator, gift certificates)
products stat (number of products, options, option variants, option exceptions, files, features, feature values, filters, configured products, edp products, products with free shipping)
taxes (address_type and price includes tax options for each tax)
shippings (rate_calculation [manual or realtime], localization, service_id, carrier)
promotions (stop flag, zone and status options for each promotion)
general stat (number of localizations, destinations, images, blocks)[/QUOTE]
Thank you for further clarifying this Imac, greatly appreciated.
I will only suggest a couple of points others have also mentioned within this thread.
Please design this as a “clickable button” enabling each store owner to submit these details at times as they desire doing so.
These details should be created in an xml or text file format so that we can clearly see exactly what details are actually being submitted before doing so.
I think you will find that as long as the various store or business owners are able to clearly see the exact details of this information being submitted, they (including myself) will gladly submit this on a regular basis in an attempt to improve CS-Cart.
[quote name=‘Struck’]Thank you for further clarifying this Imac, greatly appreciated.
I will only suggest a couple of points others have also mentioned within this thread.
Please design this as a “clickable button” enabling each store owner to submit these details at times as they desire doing so.
These details should be created in an xml or text file format so that we can clearly see exactly what details are actually being submitted before doing so.
I think you will find that as long as the various store or business owners are able to clearly see the exact details of this information being submitted, they (including myself) will gladly submit this on a regular basis in an attempt to improve CS-Cart.;)[/QUOTE]
Srtuck, thanks for your proposal.
So, we have two main points:
The “Send Feedback to CS-Cart” (label could be changed) button will be displayed on the home admin page. After you click on this button, the pop-up window with a list of parameters will be displayed (see screenshort in my first post).
Feedback will be sent automatically once a month, for example (see posts by jegesmaci, jobosales).
I think the most suitable solution in this case is to add a setting that will switch the first variant to the second one. So, if you don’t want to send the feedback manually, you can just enable the auto send feedback setting.
As for the XML, I suppose that some of our clients can be confused by this format, so I think the table containing all the parameters is more appropriate.
[quote name=‘imac’]Srtuck, thanks for your proposal.
So, we have two main points:
The “Send Feedback to CS-Cart” (label could be changed) button will be displayed on the home admin page. After you click on this button, the pop-up window with a list of parameters will be displayed (see screenshort in my first post).
Feedback will be sent automatically once a month, for example (see posts by jegesmaci, jobosales).
I think the most suitable solution in this case is to add a setting that will switch the first variant to the second one. So, if you don’t want to send the feedback manually, you can just enable the auto send feedback setting.
As for the XML, I suppose that some of our clients can be confused by this format, so I think the table containing all the parameters is more appropriate.
What do you think about that, guys?[/QUOTE]
That’s pretty cool by giving admin users enough options.
[quote name=‘joe’]That’s pretty cool by giving admin users enough options.
May I know when 2.10 will be released? Thanks.[/QUOTE]
We are planning to release Alpha in the second half of May.
Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with an exact date of the release, we are working on it and are trying to make it more stable and to include more features in it.
The longer you are in business, the more critical data you compile which means there comes a point in time in which it becomes far too risky to be tossing out your admin login & password details to others outside your organization. It is funny to me how people talk about security this, PCI Compliance that, etc etc yet at the drop of a hat they will hand over there site admin login details to someone they may not even actually know. 